Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-09-28
will neverd do wrong if you keep your life

ALONGSIDE THE E COMMANDMENTS
Do right, and you can be as brave as Marii
Theresa, who rode up the Hill of Defanc,
and shook her sword at the four corners o
I the earth.
But" you say, you shut us younl
folks mt from all fun" o, no! | likt
fun. / believe in Jun. / have bad lots o
it in nv time. But / have not had TO e
into paths OF sin to fiGd it. No credit t.
me, but because of an extraordinary pa
rental example and influence | was KEEP
from outward transgIessiOns, . though my
heart a bad enough and desperately
wicked. | have had fun ~illimitable,
though / never sWore one oath, and never
gambled tor so much as the value of a pin,
and never saw the inside of a haunt of sin,
save as when ten years ago with commission.
er of Police and detective andtwo elders Of
my church, l explored these cities by mid
night, not out OF curiosity, but that
might in pulpit discourse and set before
the people the poverty and the horrors
of underground city life. Yet, though
never was intoxicated for an
instant, aud never committed one act OF
dissolutenesS, restrained only by the grace
of God, without which restraint l would
have gone headlOng to the bottom Of in
fanny, / have had so much fun that | don't
believe. their is n man on the. planet
who has had more. Hear ii, men and
boys, women and girls, all the fun is on
the side of right. Sin may seem attractive,
but it is deathful, and like the manChineel,
a tree whose dews are poisonous. The
only genuine happiness is in an honest
Christian life. The Chippewa, wanting to
see God, blackeus his face with charcoal
and fasts till he has q vision Of what he
calls God. My God | can see best when 1
take my hat of and let the sunshine blaze
in my face, and after 4 reasonable break
fast. He is not a God of blackness aud
starvation, but
OF LIGHT AND PLENTITUDE,
and the glory of the MONDAY sun is Egypt
ian midnight compared to il. There they
go-two brothers. The one was converted
a year ago in church, one Sunday morn
lug, during prayer, or sermon, or hymn.
! No one knew it at the time. The persons
on either side of him suspected nothing,
but in that young mans soul this process
vent on: Lord, here | am, a
young man amid the temptations of
city life, aud l am afraid
TO risk them alone; come and be my par
don and my help; ave mt from making
the mistake that some OF my comrades
are making, aud save me now" And
quicker than q fash God rolled heaven
into his soul. He is Just as Jolly Us he
used Ia be. He can strike 4 ball or
catch one Us easily a. before he was con-
verified. With gun or fishing rod in thi,
summer vacation he was Just n skilltul rs
before. The world is brighter TO him than
ever. lie appreciates pictures, music, i'll
nocent hilarity, social life, good jokes, and
has plenty of fun, iiTSt-class fun, glorious
IIun. But his brother is going down hill.
In the morning his head aches from the
champagne debauch. Everybody sees he is
in rapid descent. What cares he for right,
or decency, or the honor OF his family
name? Turned out OF employment, de-
ieCted in health, cast down in spirits, the
typhoid fever strikes him in the small
est room on the fourth story
of q fifth rate boarding house,
cursing God, and calling for his mother,
and fighting hack demons from his dying
pillow, which is besweated and torn tC
rags. He plunges Olt of this world with
the shrek OF a destroyed spirit. Alas fol-
that kind of fun 1t is remOrse. 1t ia de.
spair. 1t is blackness of darkness. 1t is
woe amending and long reyerberating, and
crushing rs thOughall the mountains Of al
continents rolled on him in one avalanche
NV soul, stand back from such fun,
Young man, there is no fun in shipwreCk,
ing your character, no fun in disgraCinl
your fathers name. There is no fun in
BREAKISG YOUR MOTHERS HEART.
There is no fun in the physical pangs o.
tine dissolute. There is no fun in the pro
ilgate's death-bed. There is no fun in an
undone eternity. Paracelsus, out of the
ashes of a burnt rose, said he could re-Cre
ate the rose, hut he failed IN the alcheIniC
undertaking, and rOseste life once burned
down in sin can never again be made Il
blossom.
Oh, this plumb line of the everlasting
right God will throw it over all GU
lives 10 show us our moral reflections
God will throw it over all churches to SHOW
whether they are doing useful work or ar
standing instances of idleness and pre-
tense. He will throw that plumb linz
over all nations to demonstrate whethe
their laws are just or cruel, their ruler
good or bad, their ambitions holy or in
famous. He threw that plumb line owe
the Spanish monarchy of other days, an'
what became OF her? Ask the ~SplintereC
hulks of her oyerthrown Armada. III
threw that plumb line over French impe
rrnlism, and what was the result? Asl
the ruins of the Tuileries, and the fallel
column of the Place NendOme, and th,
grave trenches of Sedan, and the blood o
revolutions at different times rolling
through the Champs Elysees. He threw
that plumb line over ancient Rome, ant
what became of the realm Of the Caesars
Ask her wal eagles, with beak dulled an
wings broken, flung helpless into tn
Tiber. He threw it over tn
Assyrian Empire of 4 thOusan,
wears, the thrones of Semiramis, aDd Sar
dapapalus, and Shalmaneser, of twenty
seven victorious expeditions, the cities O
Phosnicia kneeliug to the sceptre, and al
the world hlancbed in the presence. Wha
became of all the grandeur? Ask the fallel
palaces OF KhOrsabad and the cOrpSes Q
= her one hundred and e~ighty-tve thousan,
soldiery slain by the angel of the Lord il
: one night, and the Assyrian sculptures o
the worlds museums, all that now lie
!, mains of that splendor before which ma
tons
STAGGERED AND CROUCHED.
l God is now throwing that plumb line owe
o. this American republic, and it is a solemn
D time with this nation, and whether W
! keep his Sabbaths or dishonor them
| whether righteousness or iniquity dominat
whether we are Christian or inidel
{ whether we fulfill our mission or refuse il
whether we are for God or against Him
we'll decide whether We shall IS a natiOI
= 90 on in higher and higher careers or go dow
| in the same grave where Babylon, ant
!. Nineveh, and Thebes, ana Assyria ar
: sculptnred.
t bat" say you, 'if there be nothin
| but a plumb line what can any OF us do
| for there is an old proverb which truth
fully declares: IF the best mans wer
written on his forehead it would max
- him pull his hat over his eyes VIVA
~ I, ,-bo, o,norS;pn 70 TSaiab